Ask one
The Victorian Government develop and implement a cross-ministerial portfolio and cross-departmental Framework to end the over-representation of the five youth cohorts in the criminal justice system.
Ask two
Government develops and adopts outcomes measures to monitor and report on progress towards achieving the proposed Framework in Ask One.
Ask three
Regularly assess the impact of proposed law reform, policies, and practices on groups affected by over-representation including genuine consultation and feedback as to the outcomes of those consultations as part of the Framework and adopted outcomes.
Ask four
Ensure services are adequately funded, over time, to enable deep collaboration and collective impact under the Framework
Ask five
Mandate all government and government-funded community delivered services across justice, policing, education, health, housing, child and family services to regularly undertake foundational and booster training on cultural safety, anti-racism, gender inequity, and trauma-informed practice as part of the Framework.
Ask six
Progress implementation of ‘Our promise, Your future: Victoria’s youth strategy 2022-27’ by strengthening the Office for Youth’s coordination role and investing in the youth and adjacent sectors to implement the strategy.
Ask seven
Commit to genuine First Nations self-determination and community control. This means prioritising the actions that First Nations people say will enable self-determination and end over-representation and under-representation, including power, money and resource transfer and sharing.
Ask eight
Develop a whole-of-government Multicultural Youth Justice Strategy, that sits alongside the existing Framework to End the Criminalisation of Young People in Residential Care and Wirkara Kulpa.
Ask nine
Bring Community Crime Prevention and Community Reintegration Support into the DFFH portfolio for 10-25 year olds. Shared responsibility between DJCS and DFFH will enable the creation of collaborative responses e.g. Youth Justice Community Support Service and Putting Families First.
Criminal and Civil Justice Systems Asks
Ask ten
Raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14 years of age with no exceptions within this term of government.
Ask eleven
Improve the way youth victims are currently identified and supported to recover (including where they have also offended) and ensure that the system is child-centred, gender, culture and trauma informed and meeting their needs, in particular those who are over-represented in the criminal justice system.
Ask twelve
Prohibit the imposition of Personal Safety Intervention (PSIO) and Family Violence Intervention Orders (FVIO) and infringe ment notices against children under 14 years old.
Ask thirteen
Legislate to implement binding enforcement reviews as advised under Recommendation 17 of the Fine Reform Advisory Board’s (FRAB) Report.
Ask fourteen
Victorian Government legislate to expand CAYPINS for 18-25 year olds.
Ask fifteen
DJCS implement the Recommendation 9 of the Fines Reform Advisory Board (FRAB) report to increase the accessibility and sustainability of the Work and Development Permit (WDP) scheme and resource WDP sponsors, so more financially disadvantaged young people can deal with fines.
Ask sixteen
DJCS, promote and expand the Covid-19 fines concession scheme to all fines to enable financially disadvantaged young people to pay a reduced amount and exit the system.
Ask seventeen
The Victorian Government undertake a broad ranging review of the effectiveness (including cost recovery) of the Infringement and Demerit Point System in discouraging anti-social behaviour of 10-25 year olds and promotes safety, fairness and community welfare.
Ask eighteen
Implement the Recommendations of the PIPA Report relating to improving where a victim has been incorrectly identified as a perpetrator of family violence and SJFW Recommendations in particular Policing Recommendations
Ask nineteen
DFFH, DH and DE develop a whole of school and family approach to addressing underlying safety and well-being needs and end the over-reliance on PSIO’s in school settings, particularly against children over-represented in the criminal justice system.
Policing
Ask twenty
As Part of Ask 2, the Victorian Government establish a culturally safe independent Police Ombudsman to investigate all police complaints including racial discrimination, the unjustified use of police power, excessive force and duty failure in family and sexual violence cases. All young people making complaints should be assisted and supported in making their complaint in a gender, culturally and trauma sensitive way. The Police Ombudsman must be independent, effective, prompt, transparent and prioritise and support the interests of complainants.
Ask twenty-one
Victoria Police prohibit police operations that either by design or outcome proactively target young people from diverse backgrounds or are based on predictive risk databases. Where concerns are raised about crime in particular youth communities, support community, youth services and schools in those areas to proactively engage and support young people to address the drivers.
Ask twenty-two
The Victorian Government legislate to prohibit police ‘targeted interactions’ (interactions where police ask questions such as ‘where are you going’, ‘what are you doing’, ‘what is in your bag’, ‘what is your name’ etc) unless the police have reasonable grounds to suspect that a particular individual is involved with a particularised crime.
Ask twenty-three
Victoria Police embed in the Vic Pol Youth Strategy the understanding that: Crime is a community issue, not a police issue and formally commit to actively contributing to an ending of the over-representation of First Nations children and young people; multicultural youth, girls and young women with complex needs and children in residential care including policies and practices that criminalise them.
Ask twenty-four
In furtherance of Ask One, Victoria Police rethink and review how young people are policed starting with consolidating all guidance relating to welfare checks, child witnesses, victims and those who have been accused of a crime, including investigation and media interaction into a single Victoria Police Manual (VPM) chapter.
Ask twenty-five
Victoria Police, DFFH, DH and DE in consultation with relevant community-based peak bodies, mainstream and culturally specific grassroots organisations commit to ending police as first respondents for young people (10-25 year olds). Instead, health, education and community services respond to young people to provide therapeutic, practical and social supports to ensure all young people can engage in civic life pro-socially.
Ask twenty-six
DJCS DH, DFFH, Office of Youth, Family Safety Victoria create local, community-based safety, 24/7 homelessness and mental health rapid response teams without police involvement at first instance. Teams to be trauma informed and trained in de-escalation. (See e.g. Youth Projects – Foot Patrol, New York City Be-Heard and Community Night Patrols).
Health and Well-being
Ask twenty-seven
DH, in conjunction with health service providers implement the promise of the Victorian Government to involve youth with diverse lived experience in the roll out of the implementation of the Royal Commission into Mental Health Services.
Ask twenty-eight
DH, in conjunction with health service providers prioritise investment in culturally safe and responsive youth alcohol and other drug (AOD) and mental health services to address critical need in Melbourne growth corridors and regional Victoria, with an emphasis on overcoming barriers to access and lengthy appointment wait-times, especially for over-criminalised groups of young people.
Ask twenty-nine
Victorian Government decriminalise cannabis and within 36 months the Victorian Government act to decriminalise all drug use learning from the decriminalisation of public drunkenness and establishment of safe injecting rooms.
Ask thirty
Recognise young people as victim-survivors of family violence in their own right and ensure that services are funded to deliver age-appropriate and tailored support.
Ask thirty-one
Support system transformation by fully funding actions in Victoria’s whole-of-government Sexual Violence Strategy.
Ask thirty-two
Better equip the specialist sexual assault sector to lead efforts to prevent and respond to sexual violence, by providing increased, reliable and ongoing funding.
Housing and Material Needs
Ask thirty-three
Expand transitional housing programs to offer 24/7 wrap around supports to young people up to and including 25-year-olds exiting prison to enable them to thrive and remain in the community.
Ask thirty-four
DFFH, DJCS, DE, Transport, DJPR, DJCS, VicPol and DH, in conjunction with community service providers, establishes a justice intervention and child protection reinvestment framework (building on the Early Investment Framework, Partnerships in Disadvantage, Empowering Communities and Better Connected Care) that authorises investment in, and support for affected communities to identify local need, design common agendas and deliver solutions addressing localised youth under-representation and criminalisation.
Ask thirty-five
Fund the development of a Youth Homelessness Strategy, co-designed with young people. This would incorporate supports best suited to young people, and encourage better coordination between youth homelessness services and other support systems.
Ask thirty-six
Deliver 5,000 new social housing properties for young people over four years.
Children, Families and their Community
Ask thirty-seven
Led by DFFH, the development, adoption and resourcing of a Child Wellbeing Strategy (to complement Victoria’s new Youth Strategy) underpinned by a whole-of-government Child & Youth Wellbeing Outcomes Framework that refers to and works alongside the Ending Over-representation Whole of Government Framework. A Child Outcomes Framework will outline what children and their families need and want to be well and thrive in life, what government needs to do to enable this, and how the community sector can contribute to this vision.
Ask thirty-eight
Extend portfolio responsibility of DFFH to include coordinating the implementation of the Childhood Strategy and Outcomes Framework, and consider dividing DFFH into early childhood, middle childhood, adolescence and young adulthood to support effective implementation of both this strategy as well as the Youth Strategy.
Ask thirty-nine
DFFH fully implement and evaluate the Framework to Reduce Criminalisation of Young People in Residential Care 2020 (the Framework) to improve outcomes for and reduce the criminalisation of children in residential care.
Ask forty
Amend the CYFA to acknowledge the systemic and intersectional drivers of the over-representation of particular youth cohorts in the criminal justice system, including children in out-of-home residential care and require decision-makers to take active steps to redress and reduce this over-representation when exercising its powers in relation to procedural and substantive matters.
Ask forty-one
DFFH resource: • Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations to support cultural plan development and implementation. • Aboriginal specific family support programs and voluntary programs providing families with flexible and practical supports, respite, and brokerage to opt into prior to child protection referrals or mandates.
Ask forty-two
DFFH ensure exit planning exists for all children and young people exiting care at any point in time and full resourcing for the plans to be enacted in harmony with ask.
Ask forty-three
Strengthen the child and family services system.
Ask forty-four
Invest in training and funding youth workers in community settings, to take a strengths-based, relational, holistic approach to supporting young people to deal with issues in their lives, and re-engage with their families, school and community. They can also forge trusted referral pathways to other services as needed. Deloitte analysis shows a return on investment of at least $2.62 for every $1 invested in youth work programs, which are proven successful in diverting young people from youth justice.
Education
Ask forty-five
Develop a whole of government plan to engage over-rep resented cohorts in meaningful education and training opportunities through to completion by recognising and facilitating the provision of timely and tailored support to all primary and secondary students (along with their families) when needed and across transitions. The plan should take into account the intersectional needs of students, teacher and allied staff wellbeing.
Ask forty-six
The Department of Education Introduce culturally safe and inclusive restorative justice in school settings with a presumption against suspension/expulsion.
Ask forty-seven
The DE should embed foundational and booster training in emotional regulation and awareness, cultural competency, colonisation, trauma and gendered violence into existing mental health and respectful relationships reform initiatives across government, Catholic and independent schools.
Ask forty-eight
DE introduce mandatory anti-racism learning into the curriculum for teachers and students; and introduce mental health literacy including but not limited to the harms associated with racism.
Ask forty-nine
DE and DFFH together with DH and other statutory and community experts to minimise police interactions in Victorian Schools and shift reliance on police as first responders to other statutory and community supports.